Gregory Bald Trail

Gregory Bald Trail from Sams Gap is a 9-mile out-and-back to a 4,900-foot grassy summit, with about 2,300 feet of climbing. Give it roughly five to six hours. It is the shorter of the two main approaches to Gregory Bald, but it is still a strenuous day. The catch is the drive: Sams Gap is on Parson Branch Road, an eight-mile, one-way gravel road that opens seasonally. Check the road schedule before setting out; when that road is closed, this trailhead is unreachable. You return the way you came.

The trail leaves Sams Gap on a mostly level walk, then crosses a small stream at about six-tenths of a mile and starts climbing the south side of Hannah Mountain. The first mile is the gentlest part, passing through evergreen forest with some large eastern hemlocks. The climb eases briefly around 2.3 miles, then steepens again. By Panther Gap, about 3.2 miles in, the pines give way to mixed hardwoods. A rhododendron tunnel leads into the final uphill stretch.

At about 4.1 miles you reach Sheep Pen Gap Campsite 13 and the Wolf Ridge Trail junction. Keep left toward Gregory Bald; the summit is roughly another third of a mile. If you continue east past the bald, you are heading onto a different, longer route. For this hike, turn around at the meadow and retrace the same trail to Sams Gap.

The summit is a roughly 10-acre grassy clearing at 4,900 feet, one of the high open balds the park maintains. The National Park Service says grazing by large animals may have helped keep these meadows open long before the park existed; that is a research theory, not a settled explanation. Today the bald's grasses, sedges, ferns and blueberries share the open ground with its better-known flame azaleas.

Gregory Bald is most famous for the flame azaleas, which make late June a particularly popular time to come. Their colors vary across the meadow, with the mountain ridges behind them. The views last all year: look north toward Cades Cove and Rich Mountain, then turn toward Fontana Lake, Thunderhead Mountain and Clingmans Dome on a clear day. Leave room in a photo for some of the grass and ridgeline; a tight flower close-up misses the scale of the bald.